


The Hero Dies in the End

by notexactlycappuccinointheclouds



Category: Sneaky Pete (TV)
Genre: Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Marius would give anything for this family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-18 17:13:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29121735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notexactlycappuccinointheclouds/pseuds/notexactlycappuccinointheclouds
Summary: Marius could walk away. But he never does.
Relationships: Taylor Bowman & Marius Josipovic
Kudos: 3





	The Hero Dies in the End

**Author's Note:**

> I imagine this as being an alternate ending to season 2, but really it could probably be imagined just about anytime in the series.

The story’s pretty simple. Taylor fucked up. Wow, did he fuck up. Marius could almost laugh at him. For some reason it hadn’t registered until this specific moment that maybe Taylor getting it on with the trophy wife of the family’s arch-enemy was a hysterically bad idea. _Yeah, that guy who hates your family’s guts? That guy you bullied for years — that guy whose childhood you probably ruined — piss him off a little more. Go ahead. What’s the worst that could happen?_ Marius forced himself not to roll his eyes.   
Taylor raised his hands up. “Look, Sean, I’m sorry.” He kept his eyes level, straight ahead, but not looking at the barrel. “You can kill me. If that’s what you want to do… okay. But let them go.” He nodded toward the rest of the family, huddled together in the corner. Marius found himself the only one, other than Taylor, standing face first in front of Shannon’s cuckolded, and gun-wielding, husband.   
Sean adjusted his grip on the gun. “Fuck you.” Marius watched the sweat bead on the guy’s forehead. The room smelled of panic. Anger too. But mostly just panic. And that was worse. Anger can be pacified sometimes. The right turn of phrase. The right gesture of repentance. You can think your way out of someone else’s anger. But panic can’t be conned or placated. Panic rips the rationality right out of people.   
Taylor’s hands were shaking. He still had them up, palms facing forward, that classic gesture of de-escalation. All evening he hadn’t made eye contact with Marius even once. Marius wondered if Taylor had even registered that now he was standing right beside him. Close enough to pick his pocket if there was anything worth taking. Close enough that he’d be spattered and stained with Taylor’s blood when that trigger went off.   
Marius pulled his focus away from Taylor and those shaking hands and what it would feel like to be the person next to him as he died. Instead, he stared at the gun. He stared at Sean, and those beads of sweat, and the fingers wrapped around that gun, still not quite pulling the trigger.   
He watched and he waited. He could hear his own heartbeat. He wanted to talk himself down, to walk away from this. This wasn’t his mess. Taylor wasn’t even his real cousin for crying out loud. But he couldn’t let him die.  
So, he focused on Sean’s hands and their grip on the gun. And as Sean pulled the trigger, Marius did the only thing he could think to do. He pushed Taylor out of the way. He was genuinely surprised at his own success. He hadn’t been confident about being able to side-slam his fake-cousin to the floor. 

Something happened. He knew something happened. He could hear Audrey scream. Something else happened too. Some kind of struggle. He couldn’t be sure. Everything was so far away. But someone was holding on to him.   
The world shot back into paralyzing focus as Taylor pressed down on the open wound. “Don’t you … don’t you fucking dare die on me.” Marius met Taylor’s eyes. In another mood, Marius might have challenged him. Threatened to die right on the spot just out of spite. But Taylor’s eyes stared down at him, like a little kid watching a balloon fly away, or their parents drive off, or the world unravel just a tiny bit. Taylor stared at him like if Marius died it would break his heart in a way that could never really be fixed. And, goddamnit, Marius had never wanted to hurt this family. He’d tried so hard to keep them safe.   
He choked out a laugh mixed with blood. Even when he did the right thing, he still managed to fuck it up. He heard himself apologizing. Taylor leaned him up against his chest. “Please… please, don’t do this.” 

The ambulance arrived about five minutes too late.


End file.
